In Monterey Bay area, automated crop care grows on farmers

When this week's welcome rain showers vanish, farmers will have to resume their struggle with drought conditions and find ways to put their water where it will do the most good. A Watsonville man has developed an automated crop-care system that aims to do just that, but growers may be reluctant to entrust their livelihoods to a machine.

Russel Maridon, whose AgRite system automatically dispenses water and fertilizers when it senses that crops are wanting, says Central Coast growers are working to conserve these resources, but they could do more.

"They're making an effort, but they're not making every effort," he said.

But Maridon, 54, is optimistic that will change more as farmers in Monterey County bring technology into their fields to help them keep track of soil conditions and avoid wasteful watering and fertilizing. The Canadian company Hortau, Inc., is also selling more of its soil monitoring systems in California, said Jeremy Otto, a regional sales manager for Hortau in San Luis Obispo.

"It's been around a long time, but it's picking up momentum by leaps and bounds," Otto said of Hortau's system, crediting the drought with the recent surge in popularity. Hortau was founded in 2002. About one in five farms in Monterey County use soil sensors that send up-to-the-minute data back to growers, Otto estimated.

Many growers, however, are not eager to turn control of their fields over to electronic systems. John Eiskamp, owner of J.E. Farms, Inc., in Watsonville, says he's been using the Hortau system for five or six years now, but he still has his workers test soil by hand while the sensors are running. Sometimes the sensors fail, Eiskamp said.

"It's been a very useful product, but it's not a perfect system," he said. "I would be hesitant to rely on it."

Still, Eiskamp shares Maridon's sentiment that technology will play an increasing role in agriculture.

"We all need to be responsible and progressive in managing our resources," Eiskamp said. "Technology allows us to do that."

The difference between Maridon's product and Hortau's system is that AgRite doesn't just monitor soil conditions. It automatically waters and fertilizes the field to bring it to the optimum conditions, which are chosen and set by farmers Maridon said.

"There's some other companies that do real-time monitoring, but that's where it stops," he said. AgRite is the first commercial system in California to automatically water and fertilize fields, which prevents overwatering and oversalting, according to Maridon. Hortau does make similar automated systems, but none are yet for sale in California, Otto said.

Growers can control the AgRite system in the fields from virtually anywhere, as they can access it from their laptops, tablets or smartphones. AgRite's sensors check the soil conditions at multiple depths, allowing growers to fine-tune the moisture and fertilizer levels at the roots of their crops, Maridon said.

"It keeps the water right where the roots are. Not a little above, not a little below," he said, spoon-feeding the crops what they need, when they need it.

Despite the water savings, the system is a substantial investment at around $25,000, Maridon said. Hortau's sensors retail for just under $200 apiece, per month, Otto said. The length of time a crop spends in the ground is also a factor for farmers deciding if a system is worth the money, said Michael Cahn, an irrigation and water resource adviser at the UC Cooperative Extension, Monterey County.

For instance, berry growers have been the primary users of AgRite, Maridon said. Berries typically spend about a year in the soil before harvest, Cahn said, but vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower only need a few months to grow.

Assessing the benefit of bringing in a real-time soil sensor network is just one of many balancing acts farmers face during the drought, said Marc Los Huertos, an associate professor at CSU Monterey Bay.

"It's a complicated equation to manage these fields. When it rains — or doesn't rain — it throws a monkey wrench in the best-laid plans," he said. While systems like AgRite could help farmers balance that equation, the technology itself is not the solution, Los Huertos said. Over the past 20 years, systems similar to AgRite have been developed in California, but none took off because growers didn't trust the machines, he said.

"I don't know if we as a society are ready to rely on an automated system," he said, "but that may be my own Luddite opinion I'm projecting onto farmers."

Maridon knows it will be a hard sell penetrating the ag industry with a machine that takes so much control of a farm.

"It's a market that's unaccustomed to this level of automation," he said. "It's going to take a cultural change."